(published in Arroyo Monthly April 2005)
NaI-Ni Chen’s choreography fuses modern and traditional Asian and Western motifs into big-bang compositions that become oh-so-much-more than the sum of their parts.
Born to expatriate Chinese parents, choreographer and dancer Nai-Ni Chen lived her first 22 years in Taiwan and has spent the last 22 in America—a cultural balance that is inextricably tied in with her work, which is as varied and multi-cultural as her background.
But the pieces Chen creates for the company she founded in 1988 aren’t simply an eclectic mixture of those various traditions. Instead, the influences Chinese, Taiwanese and American cultures have on Chen’s work are as strongly integrated in her choreography as they are in her personality: One dance may deal with Asian-influenced themes but be expressed in Western-style movement. Another may be completely abstract but have elements of ballet, martial arts or modern dance woven through it.
Chen says she never intends to blend the two (or three) cultures into a single “multicultural” style when she creates—instead, she explains, the blending occurs naturally in her body, resulting in this varied and unclassifiable repertoire. Like other choreographers, she finds inspiration from many sources, including art, nature and life experience; her Chinese heritage just happens to be one of them. Similarly, every movement she creates is a product of her training, which is also eclectic, including Peking Opera movement, Chinese folk dance, and martial arts in addition to jazz, modern dance and ballet.
“I don’t think: now this is ‘white’ and this is ‘black,’” said Chen, describing her choreographic process on the phone from the New Jersey home she shares with her husband, also a Chinese immigrant born in Taiwan, and their 9-year-old daughter. “White and black are already a mix and become ‘grey.’”
The result is an impressive company that’s performed at the country’s most prestigious concert halls, received ten awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and was given the Golden Lotus Award by the China Dance Association. And that’s just based on the dance company’s regular performance repertoire.
Of equal importance to Chen’s company are its outreach programs, educational performances for children. In fact, for Chen, who grew up in a society where dance was considered a posture-building exercise and not a career, this part of the work is absolutely vital. She’s spent most of her life feeling that part of her calling was to introduce children to dance. To that end, she regularly schedules special programs in whatever city she’s visiting on tour. (The company will perform A Dragon’s Tale for a group of local schoolchildren at CalTech’s Beckman Auditorium on April 15.) When not on the road, she works with the Harlem School of the Arts and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
“It gives me a sense of mission and obligation,” said Chen, who was accepted to both the dance performance and dance education programs at New York University when she applied to graduate school. She chose the latter, partly because she’d already had years of performance training at what is now the Chinese Cultural University and with the professional dance troupe Cloud Gate Dance Theater, and partly because of her sense of purpose. “It’s very rewarding.”
But the road here hasn’t been easy. Though Chen, whose parents fled communist China and met in Taiwan, started dancing at age 4, she had to quit as a pre-teen because of the rigors of academic study in Taiwan. At 13, her parents discovered a five-year dance program, and soon Chen was a full-time student by day and a professional dancer by night. She got her first glimpse of America when the government selected her to represent Taiwan on a cultural exchange; it was a turning-point moment that changed her life.
“I feel like my eyes were finally open. I knew: I need to come to America,” she said.
But leaving Taiwan was virtually impossible for the young girl. The only way to get out was to apply to graduate school—something Chen couldn’t do until she finished her bachelor’s degree equivalent. During three more years of studying, she whetted her appetite for the New World with another dance tour—during which she turned 20 years old and met her future husband.
Once in New York, though, Chen didn’t get to rest. She danced and studied in the NYU program, performed with various professional companies and even started choreographing her own works. She received such rave reviews for the first show she choreographed that she felt encouraged to start her own company. Despite her teachers’ warnings that the road would be long and hard, Chen did it.
“My teachers were right,” she said. Sixteen years later the company is still going strong, and Chen says it’s been worth it to work with stellar dancers who put her art on stage, to watch audiences react to her work and to reach out to children. “You can feel that somehow your heart and their heart are really together,” she said.
More than anything, Chen knows she’s on the right path—and a path she probably wouldn’t have been able to follow anywhere else. “Dance is my passion,” she said. “It’s my life—my whole life.”
The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will perform at CarTech’s Beckman Auditorium on Friday, April 15 at 8:00 p.m. For information on how to buy tickets call (888) 222-5832.
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